The present invention generally provides methods and systems for facilitating the ordering of a result set. More specifically, the present invention provides methods and systems that facilitate the search, retrieval and ordering of items of content and links to content in a result set, and a weighted reordering of the result set using values associated with each item in the result.
Search engines for receiving a query and generating a ranked result set are known to those of skill in the art. Client devices, communicatively coupled to a network such as the Internet, are able to access various search engines to execute searches. A user of a client device may submit a search query comprising one or more terms to a search engine, which retrieves a result set responsive to the search terms provided by a user. The search engine displays the result set that it generates to a user who may then select or view items in the result set.
Result sets generated in response to a user's query may be comprised of references to web sites, images, advertisements, etc., which are often ranked according to a predetermined algorithm. For example, a result set comprising references or links to web sites may be ranked according to an algorithm that determines the frequency in which a query term appears in a given web site. Current ordering methodologies, however, are tailored to provide users with results that are ordered according to their relevancy with respect to a given query. Such ordering methods order results, such as web sites or advertisements, in descending order with the result most closely related to a user's query ranked first. Ordering results in a result set in descending order with respect to relevancy is based upon the assumption that a result ranked first in a result set displayed to a user is more likely to be viewed or selected than a result ranked second, third, etc. However, while such ordering methods are capable of providing users with results which are ordered so as to provide a user with the most relevant links to content, these methods fail to take into account the profit interests and needs of the businesses providing the search engine and the ranked results.
A search engine may generate profit when a given result in a result set is selected by a user or displayed to a user in response to a search query. For example, advertisers may pay a predetermined amount to have banners, images, or other advertisements displayed to users in response to a given query. Search engines may also charge advertisers for each advertisement selected by a user or delivered to a user.
When a search engine receives a user's query, the search engine retrieves the advertisements most pertinent to the given query. The search engine may display the advertisements ordered according to each advertisement's relevancy with respect to the query received. However, different advertisements may be more or less profitable for a search engine to display as the amount paid by each advertiser for displaying an advertisement varies. Furthermore, an advertisement or other item of content ranked and displayed first in a result set is more likely to be selected by a given user than an item ranked second, third, etc. Therefore, when determining an ordering for results comprising a result set, search engine owners or operators may desire to order the results using methods which increase the likelihood that the most profitable items are selected.
Current methods and systems for ranking results in a result set fail to take into account both the relevancy and profitability of an ordered result set. In order to overcome shortcomings associated with existing ordering techniques for ordering a result set, embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for initially ordering a result set based upon relevancy with respect to a given query, and then reordering the ordered result set based upon a weighted value assigned to one or more items in a result set.